Study: Most Liberal States Are Least Free

Started by Virtue, May 08, 2009, 12:33 PM

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Virtue

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/free_states_study/2009/05/06/211385.html?utm_medium=RSS


Study: Most Liberal States Are Least Free

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 1:03 PM

By: Dave Eberhart    Article Font Size 

According to a new study released by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, some of the most liberal U.S. states rank lowest when it comes to personal freedom.

The study, which calls itself the "first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres," made a host of findings:

# The freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending -- and middling levels of regulation and paternalism.

# New York is the least overall free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland.

Unfortunately, say the report authors, these freedom-disadvantaged states "make up a substantial portion of the total American population. Moreover, these bottom five states have considerable ground to make up even to move off this ignoble list, let alone into a creditable position in the rankings."

# When weighing personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear.

Sarah Palin's Alaska does extremely well on personal freedom, conclude study authors. Reasons for its high personal freedom alone score include: fully legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana (accomplished through a court ruling), the best (least restrictive) gun laws in the country, recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships, and possibly the best homeschooling laws in the country.

# As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall -- while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom.

There are real benefits to scoring high on economic and personal freedoms, conclude the study's authors. Their analysis demonstrated that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.

The Problem with Being Liberal

According to the study, previous research has shown that, as of 2006, Alabama and Mississippi were the most conservative states in the country, while New York and New Jersey were the most liberal. In the index put forth by the new study, Alabama and Mississippi fall in the middle, while New York and New Jersey are at the bottom.

"The problem is that the cultural values of liberal governments seem on balance to require more regulation of individual behavior than do the cultural values of conservative governments," say the study's authors. "While liberal states are freer than conservative states on marijuana and same-sex partnership policies, when it comes to gun owners, home schoolers, motorists, or smokers, liberal states are nanny states, while conservative states are more tolerant."

Some Individual State Profiles

# Illinois is one of the worst states to live in from a personal freedom perspective (#49). On economic freedom it is in the middle of the pack (#29). Illinois has the fourth harshest gun control laws in the country, after California, Maryland, and New York, and the state's victimless crimes arrest rates are almost unfathomable: In 2006, more than 2 percent of the state's population was arrested for a victimless crime (and that figure does not count under-18s). Nearly one-third of all arrests were for victimless crimes.

# Texas (#7 economic, #5 personal, #5 overall) has one of the smallest state governments in the country. As a percentage of corrected GSP, Texas has the second lowest tax burden in the country and the third lowest grants-adjusted government spending. However, government employment is a standard deviation higher than the national average. Gun control is better than average, but the state falls short on open-carry laws, stricter-than-federal minimum age for purchase rules, and dealer licensing.

Alcohol is less regulated than in most other states, and taxes are low. Low-level marijuana cultivation is a misdemeanor, but otherwise marijuana laws are very harsh.

# Colorado, the #2 state, achieved its ranking through excellent fiscal numbers and above-average numbers on regulation and paternalism. The state is the most fiscally decentralized in the country, with localities raising fully 44.5 percent of all state and local expenditures. By percentage of adjusted GSP, Colorado has the third lowest tax burden in the country, surpassed only by Tennessee and Texas. It has resisted the temptation of "sin taxes," with low rates on beer, wine, spirits, and cigarettes. On the other hand, Colorado's smoking bans are among the most extreme in the country, with no exceptions or local option for any locations other than workplaces. Colorado is 1 of 12 states to have decriminalized low-level marijuana possession.

# Oregon (#36 economic, #7 personal, #27 overall) is the freest Pacific state. Oddly, government spending is high but taxes are low, resulting in rather high state debt. Public safety and administration look particularly ripe for cutting. Gun control laws are

about average. Marijuana possession is decriminalized below a certain level, and there is medical marijuana (cultivation and sale are felonies, though). Oregon is one of the few states to refuse to authorize sobriety checkpoints. Oregon is the only state to permit physician-assisted suicide. Private and home school regulations are quite reasonable. State land use planning is far advanced. The minimum wage is the highest in the country when adjusted for average wages.

The study touts that it improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: (1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens' rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure; (2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, and there are no missing data on any variable; and (3) it uses new, more accurate measurements of key variables, particularly state fiscal policies.

"We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual's ability to do the same," note the authors.


Anyone surprised?
Imagine waking up tomorrow to find
that unbelievably rape is now legal.

You would be freaking out, telling everyone you ran into this is crazy- something needs to be done... now!!! And then every man you told this to just very smugly and condescendingly says...

"Hey... not all men are 'like that.'"

The Gonzman

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the MEANEST son-of-a-bitch in the valley.

Mr. X

Not me either. Also I bet this pans out for cities... the most liberal are the least free and the least efficient. Look at Chicago, New York, LA, San Fran.... all bloated, horribly run cities with high taxes, huge entitlement programs and flat broke. Plus cameras in the streets and huge invasion of privacy. On top of that loads of special laws for protecting special class that essentially create two different types of citizens.

If liberalism works how come California which creates so much wealth is so flat broke. Same with chicago and New York.
Feminists - "Verbally beating men like dumb animals or ignoring them is all we know and its not working."

SIAM

No surprise.  What did they expect when there's more red-tape to underpin their affirmative action programs, "sensitivity" training etc? Instead of being competitive and productive, they're more interested in shoe-horning ideologies into commerce instead of simple golden rules like : equality of opportunity - may the best man or woman win.  But no, there has to be a complex system based on a victimhood hierarchy that preoccupies and distracts all that work under it.  And all the while, businesses stuck in such a quagmire get less and less competitive.   

poiuyt

Why stop the analysis with only north american states ?

The conclusions hold true for every single state or nation on earth that tries or tried creating a two class society of full citizens and total un-persons.

Unless all and sundry are obligated to earn their bread and status from work alone; unless special intrests, special victims and specially entitled parasite classes aren't prohibited; unless everyone including the government itself, holds citizenship on an identical footing and staus, then of course the society is going to be and grow increasingly unfree.

Trouble is, wicked people hate freedom and are prepared to endure a degree of un-freedom themselves, if it opportunes them to usurp, coerce and bind others from freedom to a greater extent.

Andrew Usher


Unless all and sundry are obligated to earn their bread and status from work alone; unless special intrests, special victims and specially entitled parasite classes aren't prohibited; unless everyone including the government itself, holds citizenship on an identical footing and staus, then of course the society is going to be and grow increasingly unfree.


That's communism, isn't it?

Andrew Usher

This study isn't too surprising - all it means is that American liberals like a bit less personal freedom than American conservatives do.

The Gonzman


This study isn't too surprising - all it means is that American liberals like a bit less personal freedom than American conservatives do.


Willing Slaves.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the MEANEST son-of-a-bitch in the valley.

Andrew Usher



This study isn't too surprising - all it means is that American liberals like a bit less personal freedom than American conservatives do.


Willing Slaves.


Why are you fixated on your hatred of 'liberals'? Probably because you can't think of anyone else to blame.

Social problems are almost always systemic.

poiuyt

Quote
Why are you fixated on your hatred of 'liberals' ?


Because candidly speaking ...

...he is a liberal. Albeit a closeted one !

The Gonzman




This study isn't too surprising - all it means is that American liberals like a bit less personal freedom than American conservatives do.


Willing Slaves.


Why are you fixated on your hatred of 'liberals'? Probably because you can't think of anyone else to blame.

Social problems are almost always systemic.


Generally because as an American, I identify Liberals as socialists. And I do hate socialists, on principle,  because I have yet to meet a single one who wasn't stupid, or evil, and whose death shouldn't be listed in the obituaries but rather, under "Public Improvements." 

And, sonny, I've worked hard all my life to be able to retire as a gentleman farmer before the age of fifty.  Thanks to Capitalism.  As I have said here for a while - I have mine, squirreled away so this American Brain-fart which is Telemprompter Jesus cannot take it away.

So, "blame" for what?  My success?  Phbbbft.  My success is mine, achieved in spite of government interference, and leftist obstacles.  In fact, not only am I, a millionaire, recieving a refund this year, I'm also getting benefits to break your system. 

Don't be stupid.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the MEANEST son-of-a-bitch in the valley.

Andrew Usher




Why are you fixated on your hatred of 'liberals'? Probably because you can't think of anyone else to blame.

Social problems are almost always systemic.


Generally because as an American, I identify Liberals as socialists. And I do hate socialists, on principle,  because I have yet to meet a single one who wasn't stupid, or evil, and whose death shouldn't be listed in the obituaries but rather, under "Public Improvements." 


First, I don't think you're using the words 'liberal' and 'socialist' to mean anything very coherent. My definition of 'socialism' is 'the belief that men collectively have a primary responsibility for the social welfare of other men.'.

Quote
And, sonny, I've worked hard all my life to be able to retire as a gentleman farmer before the age of fifty.  Thanks to Capitalism.  As I have said here for a while - I have mine, squirreled away so this American Brain-fart which is Telemprompter Jesus cannot take it away.


What a surprise - your ideology is based on your personal experience. That's a pretty poor grounding.

Quote
So, "blame" for what?  My success?  Phbbbft.  My success is mine, achieved in spite of government interference, and leftist obstacles.  In fact, not only am I, a millionaire, recieving a refund this year, I'm also getting benefits to break your system. 


So your support for capitalism is based on greed: since you've succeeded, it muut be a good system, and the millions of other men that haven't can go fuck themselves. And with the narrow-mindedness characteristic of libertarians, you assume that you would have done even better in the absence of government - in fact, you don't know at all how things would be without the government intervention in the economy that's been going on forever.

CaptDMO

What a surprise - your ideology is based on your personal experience. That's a pretty poor grounding.


Stunning.

Mr. Usher,
Considering the  consistent history of intellect you've demonstrated,
poster and pundit, CaptDMO demands that you
Present your credentials. (CV/resume/ANYTHING of value)

Your subsequent theses are at risk for enjoining the ranks of  other intellectual vandals as dismissed, with prejudice* from further consideration by CaptDMO.

*strictly intellectual, non-administrative- I know, I know, ....big whoop!

   

Andrew Usher


What a surprise - your ideology is based on your personal experience. That's a pretty poor grounding.


Stunning.


It should be pretty obvious that mine is not.

Quote
Mr. Usher,
Considering the  consistent history of intellect you've demonstrated,
poster and pundit, CaptDMO demands that you
Present your credentials. (CV/resume/ANYTHING of value)


I wouldn't even consider it unless you did first.

Quote
Your subsequent theses are at risk for enjoining the ranks of  other intellectual vandals as dismissed, with prejudice* from further consideration by CaptDMO.

*strictly intellectual, non-administrative- I know, I know, ....big whoop!
   


Whatever the hell that means.

Mr. X




This study isn't too surprising - all it means is that American liberals like a bit less personal freedom than American conservatives do.


Willing Slaves.


Why are you fixated on your hatred of 'liberals'? Probably because you can't think of anyone else to blame.

Social problems are almost always systemic.


So if social problems are systemic and I live in a socialist//communist government with starvation and secret police and abuse of rights then essentially that system is to blame. Yup, you got it.
Feminists - "Verbally beating men like dumb animals or ignoring them is all we know and its not working."

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